Saturday, Apr 27, 2024 | Last Update : 05:26 AM IST
Ex-SEAL who wrote book on Osama Bin Laden raid to forfeit $6.8 million
The Pentagon has dropped a claim against a former Navy SEAL who wrote about his experiences in the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, after he agreed to forfeit earnings from the book, his lawyer sa
The Pentagon has dropped a claim against a former Navy SEAL who wrote about his experiences in the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, after he agreed to forfeit earnings from the book, his lawyer said Friday.
Matt Bissonnette, who in 2012 published a book about his role in the raid titled “No Easy Day,” has finalised a settlement with the US government, Robert Luskin confirmed to AFP.
“Mr Bissonnette has agreed to pay the United States all of his past and future proceeds from the publication of ‘No Easy Day,’” department of justice spokesperson Nicole Navas said earlier in a statement.
He will pay the US government some $6.8 million in book royalties and speaking fees, Mr Luskin said.
The Obama administration had filed a claim against Mr Bissonnette for publishing the book without Pentagon approval and violating non-disclosure agreements.
Mr Bissonnette, who won several awards for valour in Iraq and Afghanistan before writing No Easy Day, his best-selling book under the pen name Mark Owen, told Daily Beast, “After the initial accusations of me leaking all that classified stuff... They found nothing They were just upset with me and wanted to get me one way or another. For four years, they looked into every little thing. Now... One signature and it all goes away.”
The US government had been accused of a double standard for targeting Mr Bissonnette after US officials described the Bin Laden raid in great detail to Mark Boal, the screenwriter for Zero Dark Thirty.
